“A picture is worth a thousand words” is more applicable today than ever before. Relevant, engaging graphics with compelling colors and animation convey your message more quickly and effectively than any actor with dialog, and usually, at a lower cost. Video is a vital medium for advertising and communication now with the amount of information everyone is exposed to in our modern world.

But how do you choose between live action video and animated motion graphics?

Live Action can be More Costly
When considering live-action video, costs have to be closely examined. Live-action video carries many extra expenses that just aren’t there with animated video. Costs associated with on-location filming can get overwhelming very quickly and editing live-action video can be much more time consuming than animated video. While live-action can be done cheaply, the quality of the video and message will be much lower than a less expensive, well-executed animated graphic video.

Animated Video Has a Longer Shelf Life
One advantage of animated video over live-action video is that it has a longer shelf life. When there are product or trend changes, you can update the graphics, message, focus, music, and many other aspects of an animated video. Live video is a more short-lived option for video because of the much lower likelihood of revising expensive on-location shoots with live actors.

Images Can Communicate Your Message More Effectively
Dialog in live-action video between live actors must be meticulously planned and technically executed correctly to get and keep viewer's attention, be memorable, and precisely convey branding messages. It requires more focused attention for an audience to follow than a well-crafted animated graphic video, which imprints targeted images with the audience more easily.

You Don’t Need Live-Action for Emotion
You may think you need live actors to convey and elicit the kind of emotion you want, but animated graphics can convey emotion very well. And with animated graphics, you have much more efficient control over the emotion because you can control the exact emotional cues you want, unlike with live-action video, where you have to depend on the actors’ abilities to convey emotion.

While cost isn’t the only consideration when trying to decide which type of video to use for your branding, advertising, and messaging, it is a real factor for small and mid-size businesses. Animated video has fewer limitations, including cost, than live-action video and produces comparable and even better results.